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Baumgartner's Daredevil Parachute Jump From Space Put On Hold
Velcroman1 writes "For years, an Austrian daredevil named Felix Baumgartner has been planning to take a 23-mile plunge from the edge of space — and in the process, become the first parachutist to break the sound barrier, plummeting toward the ground at 760 miles per hour. The engineers and scientists behind The Red Bull Stratos project, an effort to break the record for the highest freefall ever, billed the jump as more than a stunt. The leap from 120,000 feet was to yield volumes of data that would have been used to develop advanced life support systems for future pilots, astronauts, and even space tourists. But a promoter feels that the jump was his idea, and filed a lawsuit in April to prevent the event from taking place. And now Red Bull has pulled the plug on the project, FoxNews.com reports. 'Due to the lawsuit, we have decided to stop the project until this case has been resolved,' Red Bull said."
So if someone tells you to jump off a bridge, you're not allowed to do do it if they suddenly decide that no actually it was their idea and they want to keep it?
which is totally what she said
When saying "wouldn't it be cool to do a parachute jump -- from outer space!!11" gives you a monopoly on draining money off the people actually doing it, the concept of "intellectual property" really shows how childish and immature it is.
The promoter who claims it was his idea and Red Bull stole it is, as always, in it for the money. Red Bull should just abandon the whole thing leaving him with the square root of fuck all. It'd save them legal fees too.
while (true != false) process_more_stupid_code();
Ok fine! It's your idea...
Come on. You're going to space!
You need to be a daredevil to go around with a name like Felix Baumgartner. I'll be buggered if I would.
Nice to see TFA made a nod to Joe.
Not sure why it was omitted from the summary.
but 37 km is nowhere near space in my book. My personal boundary for space is the end of the Mesosphere. Official boundaries oscillate between 80 and 130 km.
Anyone else sick of ridiculous lawsuits? Can we get a public vetting vote for lawsuits to determine whether they are worthwhile or not?
Every experiment which ends in a big bang is a good experiment.
This is what you get for promoting the idea of "Intellectual Property".
If you can, using IP, stop people from making and selling products, stop people from singing songs, stop people from telling stories that contain certain fictional characters. Then why not stop people from making a jump from space?
Oliver.
Is it possible for Slashdot to avoid the marketing-speak? Space begins 100km (62 miles) above sea level. 36km is not "the edge of space".
Baumgartner is (as the article says) Austrian, so is Red Bull... Ah, and by the way. The guy who sued Red Bull for 'prior idea' (or whatever) is named Daniel Hogan. More infos here.
To error is human, to forgive, beyond the scope of the OS.
No one can tell me that others have not, at the very least, though about pushing the envelope for free falling from the edge of space and beating Air Force Captain Joseph Kittinger's previous record. Unless the promoter has filed for a patent on the idea of falling from that high, which I highly doubt (even if it is something that could be patented), I don't see what kind of legal claim the promoter would have. Truly, this sounds like an attempt at a greedy money grab. The Austrian skydiver, Felix Baumgartnen, is pretty crazy even considering a stunt like this, though. Breaking the speed of sound, which is apparently highly likely, without being inside an actual machine, is nothing to sneeze at. Plus, in the event of equipment failure, all kinds of fun physical maladies could appear, like the blood boiling and bleeding from the eyes due to low atmospheric preassure or freezing from -140F tempratures. You would think the promoter would be more concerned about the person actually taking the risk rather than his own bank account. But, I guess that would be too much to ask from the greedy corporate world.
This is why all Intellectual Property laws, with the possible exception of Trademarks, need to be systematically dismantled.
Starting now.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Uh, did this come from their "It really, truly is news!" side, or from their "It is just opinion." side? I think I better wait for independent verification.
Orwell: "In a Time of Universal Deceit, telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act"
Are you sure you don't mean "leap"?
Wait... I'm being informed by my attorney that "leap" is too significantly similar to "jump", which is already another's IP. I'm sorry for wasting your time.
Out of curiosity, is the sound barrier here defined as the speed of sound on earth, or the speed at the temperature of air 23 miles up?
The ______ Agenda
Can we push a lawyer out at 120,000 feet?
And Project Excelsior occurred even before that.
He's actually saying that his specific plans for executing the jump were used by Red Bull after they reviewed and rejected the project. Those plans wouldn't be protectable if they were open knowledge, but given that he was shopping the plans around privately, looking for a partnership, the plans constitute a trade secret.
Trade secrets are the antithesis of most IP law. Once an idea's "out there", the protection disappears, as it should.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Copyrights and patents NEED to remain. The problem with copyrights is that the shear greed is pushing for longer and longer time. And the issue with patents is that it went from physical manifestations that take long times to create, to being applied on software, and methods.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
31 kilometers is less than 23 miles, and he didn't break the speed of sound.
FTA: Hogan claims the daredevil stunt would be worth $375 million to $625 million in advertising to any corporate sponsor.
If this type of lawsuit was as prevalent in the past, NOTHING would be accomplished.
Again, science and innovation are stifled by simple, unabashed greed.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
"but trade secrets don't have any actual protection under law"
They certainly do.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Mod parent to +5 Informative! Articles talking about Bumgartner's jump ALWAYS say it's the first supersonic skydive, like Joe Kittinger's jump never happened. I'm totally behind Bumgartner's jump but I hate this historical revisionism / severe media amnesia thing that's going on!
At least the media didn't forget about Yuri Gagarin when SpaceShipOne made its first space flight, so I'm hopeful they won't forget Apollo 11 when the first commercial moon landing takes place.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I believe Joseph Kittinger and the USAF thought of it (and did it) before Star Trek was even thought of to be a campy space show that'd never last one season.
{sigh} And fanboys know Star Trek, but they don't know about a guy actually jumping from the edge of space 50 years ago.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
This is an example of something that sounds good in principle, but is difficult in practice. Imagine the scene:
"Hey Red Bull, I've got a *great* idea for a promotional stunt!"
"Yeah? What is it?"
"Sign this NDA and I'll tell you!"
"An NDA? Go away, kid, you bother me."
They did a space jump with a Corvette in Heavy Metal back in 1981.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.